Data Collection Methods

Due to our time restraint, and because of the informants schedule, we were only able to
meet him once at his workplace in Bethesda. Additionally, because of ethical reasons and privacy
issues, we were unable to see any legal documents or observe client interaction. Because of these
issues at hand, the only method we could collect data through was the onsite interview.
We were able to interview the informant in his office. The interview was extremely significant,
since we were only able to meet him once. We prepared the interview to be succinct and full of
information that we needed to complete an ethnography report. We utilized the fact that the
ethnographic research was allowed to be done with a partner; while one person (Jordan), with the
prepared interview questions, interviewed the informant, another person (Jaeah) was able to take
observations. This way, we could allow each of us to focus on one thing, and concentrate on one
task to make it as good as possible. As we have discussed in class, transcribing everything that
the interviewee says, and giving him or her the fullest attention is immensely difficult. On top of
this, for our field notes, we had to take observations of the informants manner of speaking, his
tone of voice when speaking, as this would depict the culture he embodied while he was
speaking to us. Many of the journalism majors said they recorded their interviewees to eliminate
the issue of the difficulty of keeping the interview flowing while getting as much information as
possible, but we were unable to record him due to confidentiality bindings. So we tried to do
away with the issue by assigning one person to focus only on the interview itself, and assigning
the other person to focus on the manner in which the informant spoke. His tone of voice and the
motions he made to describe what he was saying was examined, as well as noting the place in
which the interview took place.
Interviewing the informant in his office space was significant to observing who he was as
a person and the nature of his work as a corporate lawyer. The first impression of the informant
came with the impression we received when we stepped into his office. We interpreted his office
and the building as maintaining an air of professionalism. The tan and white colors on the walls,
office decorations, and the rest of the offices indicated the company's desire to create a neutral
atmosphere. This impression helped us realize better the kind of interactions he has with his
clients, as well as the type of work that goes on in a typical workday. He told us previously that
his work consisted mostly of looking at a computer screen. We did not understand this
comment before stepping into his office, but when we were able to take a look at how small the
rooms were for client interaction, and the placidness of the workspace, we were able to better
understand how that was the case.
We were able to neither collect nor observe any written works because of confidentiality
binding. In the informants profession, exposing a document without the consent of the client is
unethical, and should not be done in any circumstance. As the informants work is done in
privacy, under the condition that the information the clients give him is confidential, we could
not get any written documents from the informant that we could analyze.
Using the Heuristics in Chapter 9 of SPTC (Scott 226), which we discussed in class, we
considered the questions given by Scott, the author of this chapter, to determine how we could

work in an Ethical and Legal manner as technical writers. Because of the nature of the
informants job as a corporate lawyer, and because of his ethical responsibilities to keep his
clients information confidential, we were unable to obtain any documents to analyze. Requiring
Mr. Gohari to provide these types of documents, after he had said that his clients information
needed to stay confidential, would be unethical. We, as technical writers, had a responsibility to
protect Mr. Gohari from financial and legal harm (Scott 227); furthermore, I believe that the
reason why Mr. Gohari agreed to be interviewed and to give information to us is because we
assured him that no information that he gave would be used against him in any way. In writing
the letter of inquiry, also, we wrote very clearly that any and all information that he was giving to
us would only be shared with classmates in our ENGL 297 class. Additionally, we told him in
person that if he did not want a certain piece of information to be in our paper, we would take it
out. Respecting the informant and researching in an ethical and legal manner is a significant
aspect of technical writing; in following the heuristics from chapter 9 of SPTC, we were able to
reach the conclusion that we would not ask him for artifacts or documents, but rely on what he
describes as an expert in the field to write our paper (Scott 227).

Sources cited
Scott, J. Blake. "How Can Technical Communicators Work in an Ethical and Legal Manner?"
Solving Problems in Technical Communication. N.p.: U of Chicago, 2013. 213-36. Print.